


Helen's gift

by Houseofbeesart



Series: TMA girls week [1]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, I miss Sasha James, Sasha James Lives, Set during season 4, all the archive ladies getting to meet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:27:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25675087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Houseofbeesart/pseuds/Houseofbeesart
Summary: TMA girls week, day one: archival employeesSasha was running from the creature from the table during Jane Prentiss's attack, and she accidentally went through Michael's door. She spent some time in the hallways until she finds another door that leads her back into the archives. However, the archives are not the same as when she left.
Series: TMA girls week [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1861687
Comments: 2
Kudos: 36
Collections: TMA Girls Week





	Helen's gift

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so excited for TMA girls week!! 
> 
> I just wanted Sasha to meet the rest of the assistants and suddenly this happened.
> 
> I wrote this in one sitting without a lot of research, and halfway through I realized that I'm pretty sure Melanie is less Slaughter-y by the time Daisy is back but oh well, it's my fic I'll mess with canon as much as I want to!
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading and I appreciate every kudos and comment all of you leave!!

Sasha breathed a sigh of relief as she pushed the door open and the world righted itself. She hadn’t been paying attention to where she was running while she tried to escape that thing from the table, and she accidentally ran through Michael’s door. Luckily, Michael seemed to let her be as she looked for another door in the shifting, impossible hallways, however long that took.

But she was out now, and from the looks of it, she was still in the archives. She couldn’t see any worms though, so she must have been in the hallways longer than she thought. Whatever, her first goal had to be to make sure Tim, Jon, and Martin were safe. 

The workspace of the archives was empty, and Jon’s office light was off, but Sasha could hear voices coming from the break room. Instead of her coworkers though, Sasha found three women sitting around the breakroom. 

“Melanie?” Sasha asked, recognizing one of them. “What are you doing here?”

All three women looked up, startled. Melanie’s face paled in shock and horror as the black woman wearing a hijab moved to put herself between Sasha and a small blonde girl with a buzz cut.

“What the fuck are you?” Melanie growled. A knife seemingly appearing in her hand as she stood from her chair.

“Melanie, slow down, we don’t know what’s going on,” the black woman warned.

“It’s the Stranger,” Melanie spat, and Sasha startled backward at the fury she saw in Melanie’s eyes. “It’s fucking wearing the face of Sasha James.”

The two other women gasped. “What?” Sasha asked. “Melanie, I’m me, what’s going on?”

“I’m not an idiot,” Melanie scoffed. “You’ve got five seconds to run before I get to make up for missing out on the Unknowing.

“What are you talking about?” Sasha repeated, raising her hands in surrender. “Listen, there were worms attacking the institute, and this sort of creature that came out of a table tried to grab me, but I got loose and ran through a door that belonged to this creature named Micheal! I know it sounds crazy but you’ve got to believe me! I was wandering around the hallways until I found a door that led me back into the archives!”

Melanie continued advancing, but the black woman grabbed her arm.

“Do you think it’s possible she’s telling the truth?” she asked.

“Elias said no one ever comes back,” Melanie growled, not taking her eyes off Sasha.

“And Elias is the trustworthy sort?” the other pointed out.

“He might’ve just said that so we didn’t waste our time looking,” the blonde suggested.

“It’s been years, why would she escape now?” Melanie said, gritting her teeth. Sasha realized that she could see tears welling up in Melanie’s eyes, although they didn’t mask any of the anger still there.

“We could ask Helen,” Basira suggested.

“Fine,” Melanie spat. “You better be fucking telling the truth. You, follow Basira and don’t try anything. I’m going to be right behind you the whole time.”

Not wanting to make anything worse, Sasha just nodded and kept her hands up as she followed the woman apparently called Basira downstairs.

The yellow door the Sasha had escaped from was still there.

“Be careful!” Sasha tried to warn as Basira approached it, but she felt Melanie’s knife touch her back and quickly shut her mouth. 

Instead of opening it, though, Basira just knocked, and after a few moments, the door opened to reveal a tall black woman with giant, sharp hands like Michael.

“Oh good! You found my gift!” she exclaimed.

“So what she’s saying is true? This is really Sasha James?” Basira asked.

“Of course! Michael liked her and decided to keep her in our halls, but she was there quite a while, and she wasn’t scared enough to make a good meal, so I thought you might like her back!” the woman explained.

“Sasha?” Melanie whispered, dropping her knife. Sasha nodded slowly, and Melanie moved to her front and hugged her tightly. “I’m so sorry.” Sasha was more confused than when she was n the reality-bending halls, but she returned the hug.

“Um, thank you for letting her back out,” Basira said. “Is there anyone else you’re keeping in your halls? Besides Jared, I mean.”

“No one you should worry yourselves over, dears! Goodbye!” the woman said, stepping back into the halls and shutting the door.

Melanie finally let go of Sasha and stepped backward. The room stayed silent and she could feel everyone’s eyes on her, including the still-unnamed blonde who she hadn’t realized had even followed them downstairs until now.

“So, that was another creature like Michael? I kind of thought he was the only one,” Sasha said, reaching for anything to break the silence.

“Actually, it’s more like she was Michael, but then she became Helen. It’s a long story. It all is, really. I’m Basira, by the way, and that’s Daisy.” Basira explained.

“We should move this into the tunnels,” Daisy suggested, her voice softer than Sasha expected it to.

“Tunnels?” Sasha asked. “And not that it’s not nice to meet you two, and see you again Melanie, but where are Tim, Martin, and Jon?”

The three women looked at each other. “You’ve missed a lot, Sasha,” Melanie sighed. “Let’s go down to the tunnels and we can try to explain.”

Sasha felt her stomach drop. “No. Just, tell me where archive staff is, please. Tim must be so worried, Jon and Martin too. I need to see them.”

“Martin’s busy and Jon’s out right now,” Basira said. “And you need to understand some things before you see each other again. Anyways, we are the archival assistants now.”

“What does that even mean? And where’s Tim?” Sasha insisted, feeling panic bubble inside her.

“Tim’s dead, Sasha,” Daisy said, softly but with a certainty that Sasha couldn’t argue against, no matter how much she wanted to. She felt like the floor had just dropped out from under her. “He died in an explosion, stopping the things that killed his brother, and until ten minutes ago, we thought killed you.”

Sasha felt Melanie place a hand on her shoulder, but Sasha shook it off. Tim couldn't be dead. He was her best friend. Tim definitely couldn't have died thinking that she was dead. What kind of Romeo and Juliet bullshit was that?

"Come on," Daisy ordered. "Who knows when Jon is going to get back and like Basira said, it's not going to go well if you don't understand what happened first."

Melanie gently took Sasha's hand and led her slowly down into the tunnels that were apparently underneath the archives.

Slowly, the three began to explain what had happened while Sasha had been in the hallways, Sasha sitting silently, already too in shock to ask questions.

"So Robert Smirke was right about his dumb fear bullshit, and a Stranger asshat stole my identity, meaning no one is even going to recognize me, and I was stuck in the hallways of the Spiral for years while my best friend died and my boss turned into a cryptid," Sasha summarized. "Tim must've been pissed that Smirke was right about anything."

Melanie chuckled. "Oh, he was," she agreed.

"So, what do I do now?" Sasha asked.

"I don't know," Melanie admitted after a pause, "but whatever it is, we'll figure it out. You're welcome to hide out in the tunnels with us for as long as you want, though. Us archival assistants have to stick together, right?"

"Apparently we don't have much of a choice," Sasha pointed out.

"It sounds better if we pretend we do, though," Melanie said.

"Alright, fair enough," Sasha conceded, a smile ghosting her lips. "Go team Archives, I suppose."


End file.
